The bumpy growth of the global electric vehicle (EV) market has led US automaker General Motors to sell its stake in one of the four existing and projected battery plants, the Ultium Cells battery plant being built near Lansing, Michigan, to joint venture partner LG Energy Solution.
GM and South Korea’s LGES already produce batteries jointly at factories in Warren, Ohio, and Spring Hill, Tennessee. They supply vehicles like the Cadillac Lyriq and Chevrolet Equinox. LGES will complete work on the Michigan factory, in Lansing, and sell its output to another customer, yet to be named. GM said it expects to recoup the $1 billion it has invested in the factory, which is nearly finished.
Samsung SDI and GM are building a joint venture factory in New Carlisle, Indiana, and the automotive manufacturer said it remained committed to that project.
“We believe we have the right cell and manufacturing capabilities in place to grow with the EV market in a capital efficient manner,” Paul Jacobson, GM’s CFO said. He added its EV profitability “is rapidly improving” thanks in part to a strategic decision to build battery cells in the US with LGES.
The US Department of Energy said earlier this month it is planning to loan up to $7.54 billion to StarPlus Energy, a joint venture by Samsung SDI and Chrysler parent Stellantis, to help build two EV lithium-ion battery plants in Indiana. They will employ 2,800 people once up and running and 3,200 workers during construction. The plants will be capable of making batteries for 670,000 vehicles a year, the department said.
New data released on 6 December by Korea’s SNE Research showed the number of EVs registered world-wide from January to October was approximately 13.56 million units, a 23.7% year-on-year increase.
The growth in the January–August period was 20.1%, it said.
China had 58.2% of global market share for the first 10 months and firmly remained the world’s biggest EV market, said SNE. It registered a 36.8% year-on-year growth.
Europe recorded a 0.9% year-on-year degrowth in the number of EVs delivered. Sales of hybrid EVs in the region saw a 16.3% year-on-year increase, however.
North America recorded an 8.4% year-on-year growth. The election of Donald Trump as president means the current slowdown in growth is expected to linger, it added. SNE believes it likely that the IRA will be partially withdrawn or maintained in the US, but not completely repealed.
While China is expected to enjoy high growth next year thanks to a government campaign to replace old with new, Europe and North America are expected to struggle from a slowdown in growth due to the re-election of Trump, and economic downturn and business restructuring in Europe.
Photo: Ultium Battery Pack. GM
